Voice of the People, Jan. 15

It is known that a gun purchased for personal protection often has members of its owner's household as its principal victims.

A recent instance of this is in Newtown, Conn., where two members of a gun owner's household were killed.

Such dreadful results could be more easily endured by the community at large if victims were indeed limited to the risk-taking households that gamble with guns. Unfortunately, however, many others may also be targeted when guns are readily available among us, as happened to two dozen victims in Connecticut last month.

— George Anastaplo, professor of law, Loyola University of Chicago

No guards

Why are the public officials, with armed bodyguards, always telling us to be defenseless victims?

— Leo Kuzmicki, Oak Park

Wrong target

Let's stop this political talk (talk that the politicians think the public wants to hear) about gun control. Take away the guns from the law-abiding citizens, gun collectors, hobbyists (who use guns in target practice), hunters and for good measure throw in the military. The senseless killings of 2012 will still continue.

Solution: Target the bad guys with the guns.

— Dan Mateja, Mount Prospect

National tragedy

The ongoing saga of gun control/gun rights has made me uneasy about the future of our country. The recent mass shootings are without question a national tragedy. Going forward I see a furthering on gun restrictions that are a direct assault on the Second Amendment.

This is a topic that is going to continue to divide us as a nation.

I support the Second Amendment. I do not support the continued degradation of our freedoms in this country. Once the Second Amendment is gone, then what? The founding fathers knew the answer.

The cameras that are all around us do not make us any safer. The Patriot Act invades our privacy.

The banning of semiautomatic weapons is simply another illusion made to make citizens feel safe, but in reality it only makes the government's ability to control you easier.

— John Anderson, Homewood

Preventing tragedy

All were shocked and horrified at the massacre of schoolchildren in Connecticut. There are things that can be done to mitigate future events of this sort. However, vilifying law-abiding gun owners is not among them.

President Barack Obama is urging quick action on gun control without serious debate at the federal level. Instead there must be time for thoughtful people to make their voices heard. Action taken in haste never leads to a good result.

There is no evidence that any form of gun control would have prevented the tragedy in Connecticut. Bad guys have a way to get guns. Good guys seem to take all the heat.

We absolutely need a way for adjudicated mental-health issues to be incorporated into the National Instant Criminal Background Check, in a way that protects privacy and avoids the use of non-judicial opinions. Face-to-face sales need a mechanism whereby background checks can be made, including at gun shows.

— Nancy J. Thorner, Lake Bluff

Guns in the house

This is in response to "The life you take may be your own; Unintended consequences of keeping a gun around" (Perspective, Jan. 4), by Marilyn Katz, president of MK Communications in Chicago. Her piece discusses a sad truth about having a gun in the house: The gun is far more likely to be used for homicide or suicide than for repelling any criminal attack on the household.

I don't have any research data at hand, but I can speak from the experience of having been a reporter for a metropolitan newspaper covering the police run for 10 years. In 10 years of covering the "police beat" in a large city, I never encountered any incidence of a householder using a gun to repel a criminal attack such as a burglary, assault or home invasion.

The stories I wrote about the uses of a gun in the house were: of homicide (someone in the house using the gun to kill a spouse or other family member, an ex-spouse, a neighbor, a friend); of suicide (an adult or, frequently, a teenage son or daughter using the gun to end his or her life); of accidental shooting (often a child who discovered the gun and shot himself — usually a boy — or a playmate).

Never in 10 years was there a story to cover about a gun in the house being used for "protection" — although a defense attorney may later have tried to put a self-defense spin on a homicide.

I still have a State of Illinois permit to own a gun, but it's been 40 years since I owned one (a .22-caliber rifle once used for small-game hunting). If I still hunted, I would probably still own a gun. I no longer hunt and see no other reason for me to own a gun.